a time / the time

Banned

And if there comes a time when you would like me to tell you more about your father, what he was like when he was your age, what things he liked to play and do, I'll come back here and do so.Guardians of the Keep by Carol Berg

Moderate Mod

Because in both cases where a time is used, it refers to a very unspecified time. Veronica may not bless him the first time she ought to, or the second, or the 115th, but a time will come when she will. In contrast, the time - the exact, correct time - will come when it's time to present the bill to them.

Senior Member

Yes, that's the easiest way to understand it. Alternately distinguish an adjectival 'time' as 'timely.' [It becomes time = It becomes timely]. The nomimal 'time' here, by contrast, means a moment or an instant and has to have an article.

Banned

Yes, that's the easiest way to understand it. Alternately distinguish an adjectival 'time' as 'timely.' [It becomes time = It becomes timely]. The nomimal 'time' here, by contrast, means a moment or an instant and has to have an article.

If I correctly understand you, in "it comes time" "time" acts as an adjectival, and when you say "The nomimal 'time' here, by contrast, means a moment or an instant and has to have an article." -- you mean "the time comes"... is this right?